Change in K-12 does matter but I don’t see how it can help a lot without the change in higher ed that I advocate here. Here is a link to his op-ed, followed by my comment.
”
From whence cometh these teachers? They cometh from the universities, many of whom seek fame and fortune by doing whatever is required to raise their rankings – something that all of us who read the New York Times know from the reporting here. They cometh from the same places where “content deflation” has overtaken grade inflation; and, the same places where study outside of class has decreased by half from the sixties, and, not surprisingly, improvement in critical thinking has gone from a one sigma increase to about .07 sigma increase as reported and commented on in this paper when it covered “Academically Adrift” by Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa.
Even worse, don’t think that these same universities aren’t willing to “produce” as many PhD’s (as this country is willing to pay for) to man many of the schools that produce a significant proportion of our teachers – whether these new doctorates are really capable or not. Just give us the grant.
I know all of this because I have been there and seen how thing work up close. (If anyone wants to read more, or the details of how this all happens, see my blog inside-higher-ed.com.)
If we don’t find a way to hold universities accountable, without destroying academic freedom, no amount of work on the other problems will help.
With a trillion dollars in student debt, with giant endowment money to manage, with so much construction to do, with all those vested interests, it will be hard to change higher ed but we must”
Recent Comments